For the purposes of a client project we work on, we are thinking alongside a traditional hard-copy questionnaire that we will distribute to targeted audience, to use as well (as a test mainly) SurveyMonkey's Audience service ( https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/audience/international/ ) where actually someone can "buy" respondents. I was wondering of any of you has ever used the service as well as if you happen to know if the audience that services like SurveyMonkey promise are actual people or just randomly computer-generated answers.

In any case, as a new tool it may worth time time and money to try so that we have first-hand experience but i would like to know also your opininon if you would consider to use similar services.

While never using Survey Monkey for that specific service, I have used third-party sources for respondents. It is primarily based on trust because even qualifying questions can be faked, or as you put it, randomly generated by a computer. But if you have done some of the research, their results should jibe with yours.

"or as you put it, randomly generated by a computer"actually, we were thinking to avoid this, or at least test the service, to ask open-end questions as well and not just multiple choice ones that are easy to fake.

iab wrote: I have used third-party sources for respondents.

this 3rd party sources you mention iab are similar online services or brick and mortar market research companies?

well, we did the questionnaire, we cross checked it with identical hard copy questionnaires our client handed over to audience (in the country we were focusing our research) and we actually found in quite some questions similar results.Also, we had some open-end questions (serving research purposes as well as to test the "authenticity" of the audience) and we also received a good number of multiple responds. All in all i could say that either Survey Monkey really works or they have created a really really sophisticated software ..

in any case, online surveys are great as we had in seconds all the statistics we needed for our report that otherwise we would need lots of time or to hire a consultant.

if any other has experience with Survey Monkey or other similar services please share it.

My company, SurveyGizmo, actually offers a panel service. We have a specialist who works with you to target your audience specifically - with real, qualified people. If you'd like to speak with our panel specialist or learn more, here's the contact form: http://hubs.ly/H03-R_Q0